19 month old not putting words together!

[MamaMoose1]

Hi,
I have recently visited my Health Visitor and she asked about my DD's speech, I mentioned she says quite a few words, but hasn't attempted to put any words together yet, she said my DD should be able to do this by now, although wasn't overly concerned. She understands mostly everything I say, says hi, bay (bye), cat, hat, mum, dad, bin, hand, eyes, ears, yes, ta, also quite a few words i understand but others may not. How can I help her to put words together?

Thanks!

[Primaryteach87]

Seems a bit early to expect (although some might). I would expect it by two but not by 18 months.

[cestlavielife]

She is only 19 months !
Nothing to worry about.
Just model
Bye doll
Teddy down
Etc

[wobblywonderwoman]

I think it is a little early to be worried. Read to her a lot. Play is really good for bringing on speech.

[ruthsmumkath]

I'd say 2+ too. My 2.5 year old is only just putting words together.

[Prettybaffled]

She sounds very cute I was starting to get worried about my child's speech at that age - later dx with a speech delay.

Best thing is the hanen book 'it takes two to talk' which is much cheaper bought from the wilmslow press rather than Amazon. Has loads of ideas for games to encourage speech development.

If no two words together and 50 word vocabulary by 20 months I would ask for a hearing check (dc can have hearing loss even if they seem to hear fine) and self refer to local SALT services.

My dc now has great speech btw - we were glad we had caught things early.

[Prettybaffled]

Sorry I meant 15 words not 50

[Graceymac]

I have 3 dd's, none of them had good speech at that age. They are great talkers now. I think your dds vocabulary sounds quite good in comparison.
Dd1 was referred to SALT, totally unnecessary. SALT had no concerns and stated that by age of 2 children should have a vocabulary of approx 50 words. Didn't say anything about making sentences. What HVs say has an awful lot of impact, mine said various things that would alarm me if I was a first time mother, nothing that was ever said actually developed into anything concerning. Your dd sounds like a normal 18 month old.

[albertcampionscat]

It's expected at 2, so a while to go yet.

[Somethingtotalkabout1982]

My DS always had a good vocabulary but didn't start putting words together until around 22months - his speech is normal!

[TataEs]

ds1 said 1 word at that age. he didn't talk until 2.5...
ds2 'talks' a lot... a lot of babble with a good 20-30 recognisable words, he's 23m, but just 3-4months ago he only said a few words.
i think 19mo is very young to be worried tbh.

[Mrscog]

Too early to think about it - worry at 2. HV's perpetuate all sorts of worry in my experience - she should have said 'not to worry, we expect that by 2 so if she's not doing it by then pop back and see us. In the meantime talk to her in lots of 2 word phrases which will help her see how to do it.'

[Hobbitch]

Mine is growing up in a bilingual home and I know that can delay speech, but he's only just started putting words together (he's 2 next week). No one has ever expressed concern.

[duplodancer]

2+
I've had some truly terrible experiences with HV's and think you can't go wrong by assuming anything they say is at the very least wrong, and possibly potentially dangerous.

[KingLooieCatz]

Mine didn't speak till after he was 2. Now 8, bright, chatty, good vocabulary, never stops talking. Keep encouraging, don't panic.

[Lindorballs]

My DD wasn't putting words together at that age. She had a sudden and dramatic leap forward in her speech at 22 months. She went from saying single words to 4 or 5 word sentences over a period of about 2-3 weeks. I think it's a bit early to be worrying about it.

[MamaMoose1]

It seems Health Visitor's vary in different areas. When i went to a Children's Centre to have my daughter weighed, I told one of the Health Visitor's there, that my daughter wasn't yet crawling, she was 11 months and she said, 'Oh don't worry, she will crawl when she's ready', which reassured me. My current Health Visitor was ticking boxes on a piece of paper when my daughter was smaller, about different parts of development. Maybe some follow guidelines, more than others, I'm not sure, anyhow I am not going to worry myself.

Thanks for all the replies!